Russia withdraws from extradition agreement with Estonia

Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued an instruction to Russia’s foreign ministry to notify Estonia about Moscow’s withdrawing from the agreement on extradition of persons sentenced to imprisonment with Estonia, the official web portal of legal information said on Friday.

The move was initiated by the Russian government, which asked the president on March 17 to inform Estonia about Russia’s quitting the bilateral agreement.

Russia and Estonia signed an agreement on extradition of persons sentenced to prison terms for further serving sentences in a country of their citizenship on November 5, 2002 in Tallinn. The agreement regulates Russian-Estonian relations in that sphere and is geared to protect the rights and legal interests of Russian citizens.

“Since Russia and Estonia are signatories of the Convention on Extradition of March 21, 1983 and of the Protocol to the Convention on Extradition of December 18, 1997, the implementation of domestic procedures necessary for the enactment of the agreement was recognized inexpedient, at the initiative of the Estonia side,” a spokesman for the Russian ministry of justice said earlier.